Immune Reconstitution Profiling Suggests Antiviral Protection after Transplantation with Omidubicel: A Phase 3 Substudy.

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is a potentially curative treatment for hematologic malignancies and nonmalignant disorders. Rapid immune reconstitution (IR) following allogeneic HCT has been shown to be associated with improved clinical outcomes and lower infection rates. A global phase 3 trial (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02730299) of omidubicel, an advanced cell therapy manufactured from an appropriately HLA-matched single umbilical cord blood (UCB) unit, showed faster hematopoietic recovery, reduced rates of infection, and shorter hospitalizations in patients randomized to omidubicel compared with those randomized to standard UCB. This optional, prospective substudy of the global phase 3 trial characterized the IR kinetics following HCT with omidubicel compared with UCB in a systematic and detailed manner. This substudy included 37 patients from 14 global sites (omidubicel, n = 17; UCB, n = 20). Peripheral blood samples were collected at 10 predefined time points from 7 to 365 days post-HCT. Flow cytometry immunophenotyping, T cell receptor excision circle quantification, and T cell receptor sequencing were used to evaluate the longitudinal IR kinetics post-transplantation and their association with clinical outcomes. Patient characteristics in the 2 comparator cohorts were overall statistically similar except for age and total body irradiation (TBI)-based conditioning regimens. The median patient age was 30 years (range, 13 to 62 years) for recipients of omidubicel and 43 years (range, 19 to 55 years) for UCB recipients. A TBI-based conditioning regimen was used in 47% of omidubicel recipients and in 70% of UCB recipients. Graft characteristics differed in their cellular composition. Omidubicel recipients received a 33-fold higher median dose of CD34+ stem cells and one-third of the median CD3+ lymphocyte dose infused to UCB recipients. Compared with UCB recipients, omidubicel recipients exhibited faster IR of all measured lymphoid and myelomonocytic subpopulations, predominantly in the first 14 days post-transplantation. This effect involved circulating natural killer (NK) cells, helper T (Th) cells, monocytes, and dendritic cells, with superior long-term B cell recovery from day +28. At 1 week post-HCT, omidubicel recipients exhibited 4.1- and 7.7 -fold increases in the median Th cell and NK cell counts, respectively, compared to UCB recipients. By 3 weeks post-HCT, omidubicel recipients were 3-fold more likely to achieve clinically relevant Th cell and NK cell counts ≥100 cells/µL. Similar to UCB, omidubicel yielded a balanced cellular subpopulation composition and diverse T cell receptor repertoire in both the short term and the long term. Omidubicel's CD34+ cell content correlated with faster IR by day +7 post-HCT, which in turn coincided with earlier hematopoietic recovery. Finally, early NK and Th cell reconstitution correlated with a decreased rate of post-HCT viral infections, suggesting a plausible explanation for this phenomenon among omidubicel recipients in the phase 3 study. Our findings suggest that omidubicel efficiently promotes IR across multiple immune cells, including CD4+ T cells, B cells, NK cells, and dendritic cell subtypes as early as 7 days post-transplantation, potentially endowing recipients of omidubicel with early protective immunity.

Multiscale modeling and cinematic visualization of photosynthetic energy conversion processes from electronic to cell scales.

Conversion of sunlight into chemical energy, namely photosynthesis, is the primary energy source of life on Earth. A visualization depicting this process, based on multiscale computational models from electronic to cell scales, is presented in the form of an excerpt from the fulldome show Birth of Planet Earth. This accessible visual narrative shows a lay audience, including children, how the energy of sunlight is captured, converted, and stored through a chain of proteins to power living cells. The visualization is the result of a multi-year collaboration among biophysicists, visualization scientists, and artists, which, in turn, is based on a decade-long experimental-computational collaboration on structural and functional modeling that produced an atomic detail description of a bacterial bioenergetic organelle, the chromatophore. Software advancements necessitated by this project have led to significant performance and feature advances, including hardware-accelerated cinematic ray tracing and instanced visualizations for efficient cell-scale modeling. The energy conversion steps depicted feature an integration of function from electronic to cell levels, spanning nearly 12 orders of magnitude in time scales. This atomic detail description uniquely enables a modern retelling of one of humanity's earliest stories-the interplay between light and life.

Cyclic AMP Regulates Bacterial Persistence through Repression of the Oxidative Stress Response and SOS-Dependent DNA Repair in Uropathogenic Escherichia coli.

Bacterial persistence is a transient, nonheritable physiological state that provides tolerance to bactericidal antibiotics. The stringent response, toxin-antitoxin modules, and stochastic processes, among other mechanisms, play roles in this phenomenon. How persistence is regulated is relatively ill defined. Here we show that cyclic AMP, a global regulator of carbon catabolism and other core processes, is a negative regulator of bacterial persistence in uropathogenic Escherichia coli, as measured by survival after exposure to a ß-lactam antibiotic. This phenotype is regulated by a set of genes leading to an oxidative stress response and SOS-dependent DNA repair. Thus, persister cells tolerant to cell wall-acting antibiotics must cope with oxidative stress and DNA damage and these processes are regulated by cyclic AMP in uropathogenic E. coliIMPORTANCE Bacterial persister cells are important in relapsing infections in patients treated with antibiotics and also in the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Our results show that in uropathogenic E. coli, the second messenger cyclic AMP negatively regulates persister cell formation, since in its absence much more persister cells form that are tolerant to ß-lactams antibiotics. We reveal the mechanism to be decreased levels of reactive oxygen species, specifically hydroxyl radicals, and SOS-dependent DNA repair. Our findings suggest that the oxidative stress response and DNA repair are relevant pathways to target in the design of persister-specific antibiotic compounds.

A Novel Regulatory Cascade Involving BluR, YcgZ, and Lon Controls the Expression of Escherichia coli OmpF Porin.

In Escherichia coli, OmpF is an important outer membrane protein, which serves as a passive diffusion pore for small compounds including nutrients, antibiotics, and toxic compounds. OmpF expression responds to environmental changes such as temperature, osmolarity, nutrients availability, and toxic compounds via complex regulatory pathways involving transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation. Our study identified a new regulatory cascade that controls the expression of OmpF porin. This pathway involves BluR, a transcriptional regulator repressing the expression of the ycgZ-ymgABC operon. We showed that BluR was responsible for the temperature-dependent regulation of the ycgZ-ymgABC operon. Furthermore, our results showed that independent expression of YcgZ led to a decreased activity of the ompF promoter, while YmgA, YmgB, and YmgC expression had no effect. We also determined that YcgZ accumulates in the absence of the Lon protease. Thus, mutation in bluR leads to de-repression of ycgZ-ymgABC transcription. With a second mutation in lon, YcgZ protein accumulates to reach levels that do not allow increased expression of OmpF under growth conditions that usually would, i.e., low temperature. With BluR responding to blue-light and temperature, this study sheds a new light on novel signals able to regulate OmpF porin.

Triclosan: an Instructive Tale.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released a final rule to ban triclosan and 18 other antimicrobial chemicals from soaps. We applaud this rule specifically because of the associated risks that triclosan poses to the spread of antibiotic resistance throughout the environment. This persistent chemical constantly stresses bacteria to adapt, and behavior that promotes antibiotic resistance needs to be stopped immediately when the benefits are null.

Transposon-Sequencing Analysis Unveils Novel Genes Involved in the Generation of Persister Cells in Uropathogenic Escherichia coli.

Persister cells are highly tolerant to different antibiotics and are associated with relapsing infections. In order to understand this phenomenon further, we exposed a transposon library to a lethal concentration of ampicillin, and mutants that survived were identified by transposon sequencing (Tn-Seq). We determined that mutations related to carbon metabolism, cell envelope (cell wall generation and membrane proteins), and stress response have a role in persister cell generation.

Rapid radiation in bacteria leads to a division of labour.

The division of labour is a central feature of the most sophisticated biological systems, including genomes, multicellular organisms and societies, which took millions of years to evolve. Here we show that a well-organized and robust division of labour can evolve in a matter of days. Mutants emerge within bacterial colonies and work with the parent strain to gain new territory. The two strains self-organize in space: one provides a wetting polymer at the colony edge, whereas the other sits behind and pushes them both along. The emergence of the interaction is repeatable, bidirectional and only requires a single mutation to alter production of the intracellular messenger, cyclic-di-GMP. Our work demonstrates the power of the division of labour to rapidly solve biological problems without the need for long-term evolution or derived sociality. We predict that the division of labour will evolve frequently in microbial populations, where rapid genetic diversification is common.

Structure-activity relationship of the aminomethylcyclines and the discovery of omadacycline.

A series of novel tetracycline derivatives were synthesized with the goal of creating new antibiotics that would be unaffected by the known tetracycline resistance mechanisms. New C-9-position derivatives of minocycline (the aminomethylcyclines [AMCs]) were tested for in vitro activity against Gram-positive strains containing known tetracycline resistance mechanisms of ribosomal protection (Tet M in Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, and Streptococcus pneumoniae) and efflux (Tet K in S. aureus and Tet L in E. faecalis). A number of aminomethylcyclines with potent in vitro activity (MIC range of ≤0.06 to 2.0 µg/ml) were identified. These novel tetracyclines were more active against one or more of the resistant strains than the reference antibiotics tested (MIC range, 16 to 64 µg/ml). The AMC derivatives were active against bacteria resistant to tetracycline by both efflux and ribosomal protection mechanisms. This study identified the AMCs as a novel class of antibiotics evolved from tetracycline that exhibit potent activity in vitro against tetracycline-resistant Gram-positive bacteria, including pathogenic strains of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). One derivative, 9-neopentylaminomethylminocycline (generic name omadacycline), was identified and is currently in human trials for acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI) and community-acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP).

Does use of the polyene natamycin as a food preservative jeopardise the clinical efficacy of amphotericin B? A word of concern.

Natamycin is a poorly soluble, polyene macrolide antifungal agent used in the food industry for the surface treatment of cheese and sausages. This use is not of safety concern. However, highly soluble natamycin-cyclodextrin inclusion complexes have been developed for the protection of beverages. This practice leads to high drug exposures exceeding the safety level. Apart from the definition of an acceptable daily dietary exposure to natamycin, its effect on the faecal flora as a reservoir for resistance has to be examined. Consumption of food to which natamycin has been added and mixed homogeneously, such as yoghurt, and in particular the addition of cyclodextrin inclusion complexes to beverages and wine generates high faecal natamycin concentrations resulting in high drug exposures of faecal Candida spp. Development of natamycin resistance has been observed in Candida spp. colonising the intestinal tract of patients following natamycin treatment of fungal infections. Horizontal gene transfer among different Candida spp. and within Aspergillus fumigatus spreads resistance. Therefore, it cannot be denied that use of natamycin for preservation of yoghurt and beverages may foster development of resistance to polyenes in Candida spp.

Importance of positioning for microbial evolution.

Microbes commonly live in dense surface-attached communities where cells layer on top of one another such that only those at the edges have unimpeded access to limiting nutrients and space. Theory predicts that this simple spatial effect, akin to plants competing for light in a forest, generates strong natural selection on microbial phenotypes. However, we require direct empirical tests of the importance of this spatial structuring. Here we show that spontaneous mutants repeatedly arise, push their way to the surface, and dominate colonies of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf0-1. Microscopy and modeling suggests that these mutants use secretions to expand and push themselves up to the growth surface to gain the best access to oxygen. Physically mixing the cells in the colony, or introducing space limitations, largely removes the mutant's advantage, showing a key link between fitness and the ability of the cells to position themselves in the colony. We next follow over 500 independent adaptation events and show that all occur through mutation of a single repressor of secretions, RsmE, but that the mutants differ in competitiveness. This process allows us to map the genetic basis of their adaptation at high molecular resolution and we show how evolutionary competitiveness is explained by the specific effects of each mutation. By combining population level and molecular analyses, we demonstrate how living in dense microbial communities can generate strong natural selection to reach the growing edge.

Mechanism of action of the novel aminomethylcycline antibiotic omadacycline.

Omadacycline is a novel first-in-class aminomethylcycline with potent activity against important skin and pneumonia pathogens, including community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), ß-hemolytic streptococci, penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Legionella. In this work, the mechanism of action for omadacycline was further elucidated using a variety of models. Functional assays demonstrated that omadacycline is active against strains expressing the two main forms of tetracycline resistance (efflux and ribosomal protection). Macromolecular synthesis experiments confirmed that the primary effect of omadacycline is on bacterial protein synthesis, inhibiting protein synthesis with a potency greater than that of tetracycline. Biophysical studies with isolated ribosomes confirmed that the binding site for omadacycline is similar to that for tetracycline. In addition, unlike tetracycline, omadacycline is active in vitro in the presence of the ribosomal protection protein Tet(O).

Regulation of acrAB expression by cellular metabolites in Escherichia coli.

OBJECTIVES: Multidrug efflux pumps mediate resistance to antibiotics and other toxic compounds. We studied the role of AcrAB-TolC, the main efflux pump in Escherichia coli, in regulating gene expression. METHODS: Deletion mutants, an acrABp-lacZ fusion and reverse transcription-real-time quantitative PCR experiments were used to study the role of AcrAB-TolC and metabolism in regulating gene expression of the acrAB operon and its transcriptional regulators. RESULTS: Deletion of the acrB gene increased the expression of the acrAB operon. A similar induction of acrAB was found when acrA or tolC was deleted, and when the pump function was inhibited using phenylalanine-arginine-ß-naphthylamide. The induction of acrAB in the ΔacrB strain was totally (AcrR or SoxS) or partially (SoxR or MarA) prevented when the genes for these acrAB regulators were also deleted. The expression of soxS and marA, but not of acrR, was increased in the ΔacrB strain, which also showed altered expression of many other genes related to different cellular processes, including motility. Deletion of the metabolic genes entA and entE (enterobactin biosysnthesis), glpX (gluconeogenesis), cysH (cysteine biosynthesis) and purA (purine biosynthesis) also prevented activation of the acrAB promoter in the ΔacrB strain. Addition of the enterobactin biosynthesis intermediate metabolite 2,3-dihydroxybenzoate induced the expression of acrAB. CONCLUSIONS: These results together suggest a model in which the AcrAB-TolC pump effluxes cellular metabolites that are toxic and/or have a signalling role. If the pump is inactivated or inhibited, these metabolites would accumulate, inactivating AcrR and/or up-regulating soxS and marA expression, ultimately triggering the up-regulation of acrAB expression to restore homeostasis.

Amino acid residues involved in inactivation of the Escherichia coli multidrug resistance repressor MarR by salicylate, 2,4-dinitrophenol, and plumbagin.

MarR is the dedicated autorepressor of the marRAB operon found in seven genera of the Enterobacteraceae. The MarA transcriptional regulator directly activates numerous genes involved in multidrug resistance and other environmental responses. MarR is inactivated by certain phenolic ligands, such as salicylate, by an unknown mechanism. Our recent work has shown that several amino acid residues of Escherichia coli MarR affecting ligand binding are located between the dimerization and DNA-binding domains. To further characterize the ligand-binding region of MarR, we have now examined 7 point mutants generated by random mutagenesis and 11 site-directed alanine replacement mutants for inactivation by three ligands: salicylate, 2,4-dinitrophenol, and plumbagin. Inactivation of MarR was quantitated in intact cells by loss of MarR-mediated repression of a chromosomal mar-lacZ transcriptional fusion. The results showed that most of the residues important for ligand effectiveness lay in the α1 and α2 helices of MarR, between the putative DNA-binding domain and the dimerization domain of MarR, reinforcing our earlier findings. Moreover, the three ligands had different, but overlapping, sets of residues impacting their effects on MarR.

The contribution of PmrAB to the virulence of a clinical isolate of Escherichia coli.

Previous data from our laboratory suggest a relationship between increased pmrAB expression and virulence in an Escherichia coli mouse infection model of pyelonephritis. Competitive infections with wild type and pmrAB mutants showed that disruption of pmrAB caused decreased persistence of E. coli within the mouse kidney. These results were confirmed with plasmid-mediated complementation of the pmrAB mutant. Additionally, increased expression of pmrAB from this complementing plasmid in a previously attenuated marA-rob-soxS triple mutant displayed increased bacterial persistence in the infection when compared with the triple mutant alone. These findings suggest a role for this two-component regulatory system in the virulence of E. coli in a murine pyelonephritis model.

Pleiotropic effects of GacA on Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf0-1 in vitro and in soil.

Pseudomonas species can exhibit phenotypic variation resulting from gacS or gacA mutation. P. fluorescens Pf0-1 is a gacA mutant and exhibits pleiotropic changes following the introduction of a functional allele. GacA enhances biofilm development while reducing dissemination in soil, suggesting that alternative Gac phenotypes enable Pseudomonas sp. to exploit varied environments.

Mutational analysis of the multiple-antibiotic resistance regulator MarR reveals a ligand binding pocket at the interface between the dimerization and DNA binding domains.

The Escherichia coli regulator MarR represses the multiple-antibiotic resistance operon marRAB and responds to phenolic compounds, including sodium salicylate, which inhibit its activity. Crystals obtained in the presence of a high concentration of salicylate indicated two possible salicylate sites, SAL-A and SAL-B. However, it was unclear whether these sites were physiologically significant or were simply a result of the crystallization conditions. A study carried out on MarR homologue MTH313 suggested the presence of a salicylate binding site buried at the interface between the dimerization and the DNA-binding domains. Interestingly, the authors of the study indicated a similar pocket conserved in the MarR structure. Since no mutagenesis analysis had been performed to test which amino acids were essential in salicylate binding, we examined the role of residues that could potentially interact with salicylate. We demonstrated that mutations in residues shown as interacting with salicylate at SAL-A and SAL-B in the MarR-salicylate structure had no effect on salicylate binding, indicating that these sites were not the physiological regulatory sites. However, some of these residues (P57, R86, M74, and R77) were important for DNA binding. Furthermore, mutations in residues R16, D26, and K44 significantly reduced binding to both salicylate and 2,4-dinitrophenol, while a mutation in residue H19 impaired the binding to 2,4-dinitrophenol only. These findings indicate, as for MTH313, the presence of a ligand binding pocket located between the dimerization and DNA binding domains.

The 216-bp marB gene of the marRAB operon in Escherichia coli encodes a periplasmic protein which reduces the transcription rate of marA.

The marRAB operon is conserved in seven genera of enteric bacteria (Escherichia, Shigella, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Salmonella, Cronobacter, and Citrobacter). MarA is a transcriptional regulator affecting many genes involved in resistance to stresses, and MarR is an autorepressor of the operon, but a role for the marB gene has been unclear. A recent work reported that deletion of marB causes resistance to certain stresses and increases the amount of marA transcript. We show here that the small (216 bp) marB gene encodes a protein, not an sRNA, because two different stop codons within the predicted open reading frame of marB prevented plasmid-borne marB from complementing ΔmarB::Kan. The ΔmarB::Kan mutation did not increase the stability of the marA transcript, suggesting that MarB does not destabilize the marA transcript but rather reduces its rate of transcription. Placing the putative signal sequence of MarB upstream of signal-sequence-less alkaline phosphatase guided the phosphatase to its normal periplasmic location. We conclude that MarB is a small periplasmic protein that represses the marRAB promoter by an indirect mechanism, possibly involving a signal to one of the cytoplasmic regulators of that promoter.

Honeybees and tetracycline resistance.

Like animals and people, insects can serve as both collectors and disseminators of antibiotic resistance genes, as exquisitely demonstrated by a recent study (B. Tian, N. H. Fadhil, J. E. Powell, W. K. Kwong, and N. A. Moran, mBio 3[6]:e00377-12, doi:10.1128/mBio.00377-12, 2012). Notably, the relatively confined ecosystem of the honeybee gut demonstrates a large propensity for harboring a diverse set of tetracycline resistance genes that reveal the environmental burden resulting from the long-time selective pressures of tetracycline use in the honeybee industry. As in humans and animals, these genes have become established in the native, nonpathogenic flora of the insect gut, adding credence to the concept that commensal floras provide large reservoirs of resistance genes that can readily move into pathogenic species. The homology of these tetracycline resistance determinants with those found in tetracycline-resistant bacteria associated with animals and humans strongly suggests a dissemination of similar or identical genes through shared ecosystems. The emergence of linked coresistances (ampicillin and tetracycline) following single-antibiotic therapy mirrors reports from other studies, namely, that long-term, single-agent therapy will result in resistance to multiple drugs. These results contrast with the marked absence of diverse, single- and multiple-drug resistance genes in wild and domestic bees that are not subjected to such selective pressures. Prospective studies that simultaneously track both resistance genes and antibiotic residues will go far in resolving some of the nagging questions that cloud our understanding of antibiotic resistance dissemination.